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SACAGAWEA
the only
Native American woman who served as an interpreter and guide for
May
14, 1805 -
The boat Sacajawea was riding in was hit
by a high wind and nearly capsized. Her calmness earned
her compliments from the Captains. July 28, 1805 - Sacajawea was a remarkable woman in time of sorrow. "Our camp is precisely on the spot that the Snake Indians were encamped at the time the Minnetares of the Knife River first came in sight of them five years since. From hence they retreated about three miles up Jefferson's River and concealed themselves in the woods, the Minnetares pursued, attacked them, killed 4 men, 4 women, a number of boys, and made prisoners of all the females and four boys, Sacajawea was one of the female prisoners. I cannot discover that she shows any emotion of sorrow in recollecting this event, or of joy in being restored to her native country; if she has enough to eat and a few trinkets to wear I believe she would be perfectly content anywhere..." August 8, 1805 - Sacajawea was attached to her country and kin. "The Indian woman recognized the point of a high plain to our right which she informed us was not very distance from the summer retreat of her nation on a river beyond the mountains which runs to the west. This hill she says her nation calls the Beaver's Head, as it resembles the head of that animal. She assures us that we shall either find her people on this river or on the river immediately west..."
August
17, 1805 - Five years later, Sacajawea had an
emotional reunion with her brother, Chief Cameahwait; it was
Sacajawea who secured the horses that the Expedition needed. October 19, 1805 - The presence of Sacajawea was an invitation to the Indians that the white people came in peace. "The sight of this Indian woman, wife to one
of our interprs. confirmed those people of our friendly
intentions, as no woman ever accompanies a war party of
Indians in this quarter..." November 20, 1805 - Sacajawea, always pleasing the Captains. "one of the Indians had on a roab made of 2 Sea Otters Skins the fur of them were more butifull than any fur I had ever seen both Capt. Lewis & my Self endeavored to purchase the roab with differant articles at length we precurred it for a belt of blue beeds which the - wife of our interpreter Shabono wore around her waste..." November 24, 1805 - Reaching the place where the Columbia River empties into the Pacific Ocean, the members of the Expedition were given the right to vote on the location where they would settle for the winter. Sacajawea (Janey) in favor of a place where there is plenty of Potas. January 7, 1806 - A whale had washed ashore, near present day Seaside/Cannon Beach, Oregon. Sacajawea accompanied the group to the ocean. "...she observed that she had traveled a long way with us to see the great waters, and that now that monstrous fish was also to be seen,..." July 15, 1806 - Sacajawea proved a valuable guide on the return journey. She remembered trails from her childhood; the most important trail was a large road that passed through a gap in the mountain, which led to Yellowstone River. Today, it is known as Bozeman Pass, Montana. August 17, 1806 - End of the Journey for Sacajawea... returning to the Hidatsa-Mandan Village. " I offered to take the little son a butifull promising child who is 19 months old to which they both himself & wife were willing provided the child had been weened. They observed that in one year the boy would be sufficiently old to leave his mother & he would then take him to me if I would be so friendly as to raise the child ... to which I agreed".
Mountains
Sacajawea Peak, Bridger Range, Montana Paintings
Sacajawea on Indian pony, with child
in papoose cradle, Henry Altman, 1905.
Mural, Lewis and Clark at the Three
Forks, Edward Samuel Paxson, Capitol, Helena, Montana. Markers Grave of "Sacajawea of the
Shoshonis," on the Shoshoni Reservation, near Lander,
Wyoming, 1909. Lakes/Creeks Lake Sacajawea, Longview, Washington Interpretive Centers Sacajawea Interpretive Center, Pasco, Washington Sacajawea Interpretive Center Salmon, Idaho Historic Route Title of Honorary Sergeant, Regular Army Source: Sacajawea |
the Lewis
and Clark Expedition in 1805 and 1806. 
